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Why fix the Turner Prize when it ain’t broke?

May 4, 2017

THE ART NEWSPAPER | Ben Luke:

There is a downside to dropping the age limit of 50 for qualifying artists.

This year’s Turner Prize shortlist marks the most significant shift in the award for 25 years: the age limit of 50, established in 1991 and in place ever since, has been abolished. In a press conference on 3 May, the jury’s chair and Tate Britain’s director, Alex Farquharson, said that age limit “originally helped the prize define itself as an award for a breakthrough moment in a more emerging artist’s career.

But now this remit is so well established, I think we can safely acknowledge that artists can experience a breakthrough at any age without any risk of the prize becoming a lifetime achievement award”. So now, just as when the prize was …read more